Happy Chosuk

Date: 11 Sept 2003
Location: Kunsan, Korea
Happy Chosuk (pronounced choo-sock) everybody! It's Korean Thanksgiving. It is a day of gift giving, visiting friends and relatives, and dressing in the traditional garb. It is also a weekend of immense traffic jams. My drive to visit Paul took over 5 hours last night, and that was the day BEFORE the Korean transit authority issued a traffic warning. For the first 3 hours, I really didn’t mind. I took the top down for the first time since arriving, and with the wind in my hair, and a misty sunset over the hills, I was in heaven. I’ve only seen one other convertible here outside of the base, so many curious Koreans wanted to converse with me as we inched along. The language barrier turned the conversations into lots of “Hello” “How are you” and “Good car”. Kids waved and giggled. I listened to Gypsy Kings and Norah Jones and life was good. Until it started raining. It has rained here every day for the past month. That dampened my spirits, and put me a really fowl mood when I finally arrived. Add that to the fact I’d just finished a mid shift, and I wasn’t very pleasant last night.

After 4 months, I think I'm getting past the large culture shock items, and starting to notice the little things. When I lived in Costa Rica and England this was the point I really started to enjoy myself, although since in both places I had more interaction with the locals, and spoke the languages, so I got to this stage sooner. The same thing is happening here. Everyday things tickle me. I love that people dry chili peppers on big black mats on the sidewalk. I stopped to take pictures, and people thought I was nuts. I couldn’t help it. The colors are beautiful, and over the past weeks, I’ve watched them change from fire engine red to a glossy candied apple. I also love that people grow their own chili peppers, and sunflowers, and pumpkins and tomatoes in their yards, or actually any 2 feet of space not otherwise occupied. When I got here, I thought there were lots of overgrown areas around people’s houses. In the past couple weeks, it’s become apparent I was wrong. You can be driving downtown, with high-rise apts on all sides, and see a man with a hoe lovingly caring for his 2’x4’ plot of whatever. Instead of fixing large cracks in the sidewalk, why not put a tomato plant or two? The most popular place for pumpkins is on the roof, which gives some of the smaller houses a fairytale jack and the beanstalk look. Even on the base, in the middle of the ops complex, the Korean military folks have little gardens planted, and the lower ranking guys have to weed every day. I guess it has been so recently that this area moved from agrarian to urban, old habits are still hanging on.

Paul bought me some flowers last week, and found that experience most enjoyable. He went into the little shop around the corner from my apt, motioned to the lilies, and held up fingers for how many he wanted. He was shown to a chair, given some coffee, and told to wait. I’m not sure what transpired then, but the end product was something. The flowers were wrapped in heavy white tissue paper, the edge was glued together, and adorned with little pearls, each one glued on. In the middle, she put a tissue paper rose, with pearls in the center. Outside of the tissue is a couple feet worth of pink and silver netting, held together by several strands of silver beads, tied intricately. Paul said he started to worry about the price half way through the process, but nothing here is that much, so there really wasn’t much need to worry.

In banks, department stores and government offices, people wear uniforms. They are usually very elaborate ones, with lots of bows and ties, and often times hats for women. I think it looks really nice. Females tend to work in twos. I love walking into a department store in Seoul and having two girls in matching coats and hats bow and ask how they can help in unison. I’m assuming that is what they’re saying…but it’s a logical guess. Lots of bowing here, I love parking lots. The attendants show you which way to go, and then bow. Tickles me. I volunteer at the orphanage my squadron supports, and they were giving the kids bowing lessons. It was hands down one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.

I learned a new game. Its called ju-sok or something. It’s played with a soccer ball on a tennis court, with volleyballish rules. Out Korean counterparts invited us over to their compound to play. I was pretty good, really. I was the only female playing, and at first they played easy. Once I showed ‘em up a couple times, all bets were off. Afterward they insisted I’d played before. I assured them it wasn’t likely, but that I played soccer. They thought that was great, and they offered me lots of soju and makali. Soju will be a topic of discussion for a later letter. For the time being, I’m trying to avoid it. At the moment I’m also trying to avoid the spiders. They are HUGE—big as your head, and they make webs between trees and telephone poles. The webs are pretty in the morning dew, but not so charming when you run into them on the golf course.

Well, that’s about it. We’re expecting a typhoon in the next 24-48 hours, so that should make my drive home pleasant, in addition to holiday traffic. So, until next month, I’ll be signing off.

Annyeonghi gyeseyo
Sarah